Norvic Philatelics

The Ashes Series - England Winners : 6 October 2005

The nation's eyes were fixed on The Oval as England's heroes drew with the Australians to win the Ashes for the first time since 1987. To commemorate this historic achievement, Royal Mail will issue special stamps that show some of the most dramatic moments from this Ashes series.

The miniature sheet will contain 2 x 1st class inland letter rate stamps and 2 x 68p stamps which pay the 20gr airmail rate outside Europe, ie to Australia.

Stamp and sheet details:

1st class - England celebrate the Ashes victory.
Front row, left to right: Andrew Strauss, Michael Vaughan and Kevin Pieterson. Middle row, left to right: Ian Bell (behind Andrew Strauss), Matthew Hoggard, coach Phil Neale and Steve Harmison. Back row, left to right: physiotherapist Kirk Russell and physiologist Nigel Stockhill.
1st class - Third Test, Old Trafford: Captain Michael Vaughan against a backdrop of other players.
68p - First Test, Lords: Kevin Pieterson, Captain Michael Vaughan and Andrew Flintoff celebrate the wicket of Adam Gilchrist on the opening day of the Ashes series.
68p - Second Test, Edgbaston: main wicket area with players in the distance
Background: England & Wales Cricket Board logo (Crowned Three Lions in dark blue) and caption.

Technical details: The 115x89mm sheets are printed by Cartor Security Print, France, in lithography; the stamps are 41x30mm. Design is by Why Not Associates.

Postmarks, stamps and the PO FDC are copyright 2005 by Royal Mail. Photographic credits: Action Images plc, Corbis, Tom Jenkins.
Team England logo by kind permission of the England and Wales Cricket Board. The Ashes Urn (on the PO fdc) reproduced with kind permission of Marylebone Cricket Club.

Norvic Exclusive First Day Cover

As usual, we will produce an exclusive Norvic FDC for this stamp issue, limited to 50 copies, Price - £6.50.
There will be 10 each of postmarks FD542, L9801, L9999, and L9856 (the remaining 10 are one-offs to customers' orders).

Use of the Ashes Urn by kind permission of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC); use of the 3-Lions logo by kind permission of the England & Wales Cricket Board.

Also available :
Miniature sheet on Royal Mail FDC - £4.25
Mint sheet of 4 - £3.00       Presentation Pack - £3.95

Special postmarks: These postmarks are available for first day covers.

A note for newcomers - but experienced collectors can read it as well!

Latest update (29 October 05) in blue
The Ashes series this summer excited the nation and cricket-lovers the world over. Now Royal Mail's decision to commemorate this event has brought many new visitors to our website. Many of you are not stamp collectors but you want a memento of this occasion - you watched on television, or maybe went to the matches or Trafalgar Square, but you don't have any long lasting souvenir. Your match tickets are, like your fingernails, nibbled to shreds, and your scorecard got bent in the crush of the crowd (or the pub afterwards!).

So what do you know about stamps - maybe nothing, apart from the fact that you sometimes put them on letters - if you send letters in these days of email and texting. So welcome to our website which, if you explore beyond this page, shows you some of the other stamps issued by Royal Mail in recent years.

So back to the Ashes. The miniature sheet of 4 stamps will be on sale at most Post Offices from Thursday 6th October at face value of £1.96. Many POs will also sell the first day cover [FDC](commemorative envelope) for 25p, and/or a presentation pack.

We have now added the image of our own FDCs for the Ashes, above, and the Royal Mail fdc (below). The postmark table above shows all the postmarks relevant to these stamps.

Royal Mail have allowed dealers and collectors until the end of October to get FDCs cancelled with any of the special postmarks, but we will aim to get some done early on, whilst leaving open our options for using others later. On our Norvic covers we use a selection of 2 or 3 to appeal to all tastes. On Royal Mail fdcs we will get any postmark that our customers want.

You can, of course, buy the stamps and the FDC from the post office, address it to yourself, and post it. Post Offices will probably arrange for it to have postmark FD542 above, but you will have to check. Addresses on our own and the Royal Mail FDCs are printed discreetly in small type. As with any collectable it is entirely up to the collector how to collect what he or she wants. But should you ever want to sell your Ashes FDC - whether it is a Norvic cover or a RM one - other collectors, and certainly dealers, will prefer one which has no handwritten address. (We don't give investment advice: for most people this is a hobby and most hobbyists do not welcome investors! But we are often asked to buy collections of FDCs, and have to decline because there is so little demand for hand-addressed covers.) Any FDCs ordered from dealers by mail order will be sent inside another, board-backed, envelope and protected from sorting machines and the weather! There is, of course, a price to pay for this, but we hope that if you buy from us you will consider your purchase was good vaue for money.

Ordering first day covers
Thanks for your interest and if you want to order from us please email us as early as you can with details as we expect this to be popular, judging by reaction so far. Use this email link to register your interest. Now that all available postmarks are shown, you can make part of your choice, for which postmark you want on which cover. We will produce only 50 Norvic covers; there will be 10 each of postmarks FD542, L9801, L9999, and L9856 plus up to 10 one-offs to customer's orders.
Payment
Although it would be much easier for everybody if we were able to take payment by credit cards, the annual and monthly fees outweigh the benefits, so we have to ask for payment by cheque (payable to 'Ian Billings' or internet bank transfer (please ask for details). Customers in other countries who do not have access to a UK bank account, please ask about international payment options.
Our telephone number for UK readers is 08450 09 09 39, but email is the best way for us to capture your details and will save you leaving a message if we are out.

This page updated 31 October 2005

Royal Mail first day cover design

(we completed the concept for our design before we saw theirs!)